ATMs need periodic replenishment so that they can continue to dispense cash to customers. Owners of large ATM networks typically use cash forecasting techniques to ensure that sufficient cash is present throughout a bank's network (which includes the bank's ATMs) to maintain availability of cash and to minimize cash replenishment operations, without requiring large amounts of surplus cash (which is expensive) to be located within the network.
A cash forecasting system generates recommended scheduled visits and recommended replenishment amounts based on business rules provided to the cash forecasting system. Which rules are supported and how they are implemented is one of the key differentiators between cash forecasting solutions.
A cash forecasting system is typically aware of the forecasted cash demand, current scheduled replenishment visits, and current scheduled replenishment amounts.
However, when an ATM experiences a significantly higher demand for cash due to unusual local conditions (for example, surrounding ATMs being out of service or an unforecasted local event that drives a need for cash), an ATM management system detects one or more of: cash count thresholds being reached, cash low events, or cash out events. This drives an emergency cash dispatch to replenish the ATM. This dispatch is expensive, and may not be necessary if a cash replenishment operation is scheduled within a few hours of the emergency cash dispatch.